Head of the Emperor Vitellius in Böttger stoneware

Siegfried Asche attributed the Vitellius head to the Dresden sculptor Paul Heermann, who was court sculptor and, for a time, also curator and restorer of Augustus the Strong’s collection of antiquities. As early as 1708, Heermann is documented as having supplied models for figural Böttger stoneware (Asche in Keramos 49/1970).

The bust of Vitellius originally belonged to a series of the first twelve Roman emperors. Since the Renaissance, this subject had been a popular motif of courtly iconography. The cycle goes back to the ancient writer Suetonius, who recorded the lives of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian in his De vita Caesarum libri VIII — the Eight Books on the Lives of the Caesars.

From this tradition, so-called imperial galleries developed at European princely courts. Their primary function lay in the representation of princely power. At the same time, they illustrated the political and dynastic reference to the Roman Empire, as well as the demonstrative loyalty of the respective ruling houses to the Emperor (Stupperich 1995).

The Vitellius head in the Meissen inventories

1710
Siegfried Asche dated the Vitellius head to 1708/10. In our view, this appears too early. The model was not yet part of the range announced by the manufactory in the Leipziger Zeitung of 14 May 1710, on the occasion of its first participation in the Leipzig Easter Fair in May 1710 (Walcha 1973, fn. 19).

1711
The Vitellius head first appears in 1711, in the two inventories of the Dresden warehouse, dated 28 May, and of the Meissen production site, dated 3 August. Claus Boltz published both inventories in 1982 in the Mitteilungsblatt der Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, no. 96. A comparison of the two inventories — the warehouse inventory and the production-site inventory — provides three essential points of evidence for the Vitellius head:

1. Dating: Since the bust is clearly mentioned here for the first time, the 1711 inventory provides a secure terminus ante quem for its creation.
2. Evidence of a series: In the inventory of the production site, twelve plaster moulds are listed, each for a “Kayser Kopff” (nos. 43, 71–81; Boltz, ibid., p. 23). This suggests that a cycle of twelve Caesar heads was indeed originally created in Meissen (cf. also Menzhausen 1982, p. 95).
3. Evidence concerning the whereabouts of the other models: Asche had already raised the question of the whereabouts of further models besides the heads of Vitellius and Augustus known today. In addition to the twelve moulds, the inventory of the production site also records “43 Kayser Köpffe”. We do not know, however, which emperors these represented. Moreover, all of these pieces were described as “schadhafft”, or defective. It may therefore be assumed that they were never released for sale.

In the warehouse, by contrast, only “Vitellius Kaiserköpffe” were present (Boltz, ibid.). Although this represents only a snapshot from the year 1711, it corresponds remarkably closely to the situation known today: from the series of twelve emperors, only Vitellius heads have come to light, apart from the single known Augustus head.

1719
After the death of Johann Friedrich Böttger on 13 March 1719, four inventories were drawn up. They recorded the holdings of Böttger stonewares and porcelains in Meissen (“Vorderstube auf dem Schloß”), in the warehouses in Dresden and Leipzig, and in “Böttgers Behauszung”. Boltz brought these four inventories together and arranged them thematically by models (Keramos 167/168, 2000).

In section 8, “Figürliches”, the inventories of Dresden and Leipzig, as well as Böttger’s estate inventory, again contain the general entries “Kayser Köpffe” and, more specifically, “Vitellius Köpffe” (ibid., p. 66). It is again noteworthy that only Vitellius is mentioned by name. In the entries “Kayser Köpffe”, by contrast, it remains unclear which models were meant.

The fact that by 1719 not a single Caesar or Vitellius head remained in the holdings of the Meissen manufactory is understandable. The production of Böttger stoneware had been discontinued from 1713, when Böttger was able to produce white porcelain, including the glaze, on a manufactory scale. The stonewares still present in Meissen were evidently distributed in the following years to the warehouses in Dresden and Leipzig, as well as to Böttger’s residence. The Caesar and Vitellius heads were made exclusively in stoneware; one example was black-glazed. The model does not appear in porcelain in any of the inventories.

1733
The heads still present in 1719 must, however, have been sold before 1733. At the time of the final settlement of Böttger’s estate and the regulation of the so-called “Böttger credit system” in 1733, no Caesar head was still present (Boltz, Keramos 153/1996).

Comparative examples

Vitellius

• Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Dr Schneider Collection, inv. no. ES 1859 = Asche in Keramos 49/1970, fig. 13 = Rückert 1966, no. 824
• Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Bursche no. 26, inv. no. K 1352
• Porzellansammlung im Zwinger, Dresden, inv. no. PE 2378
• Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha, Eberle 2011, nos. 9 f.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. 54.679
• Grassimuseum Leipzig, inv. no. 1930.289
• The Korthaus Collection, Christie’s, 1.3.1993, lot 10 = T. Dreßen Coll., pl. 1
• Sotheby’s, 4 July 1967, lot 181

Augustus

• Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Dr Schneider Collection, inv. no. ES 2046 = Asche in Keramos 51/1971, fig. 1

Similar models mentioned in the Meissen literature in connection with the Vitellius head include the head of Apollo (Asche, fig. 12; Rückert 1966, no. 825) and the bust of Proserpina (Asche, fig. 14).